Final Wipe and Lot Selection

UPDATE: JULY 12, 2016: Updated the group numbers to current backer numbers.

Greetings Avatars,

We are incredibly excited to announce that we have scheduled final lot selection and our final wipe, including all social data (names, friends, guilds), for Release 32, July 28, 2016! After Release 32, we will no longer be wiping the game state. Your characters and your properties will be persistent from that date forward!

Please understand that final wipe is not “launch”. We will continue to be working to finish the game's story content well past final wipe, while we remain in Early Access. Until then, the game is neither "launched" nor complete, but as mentioned below, the concept of “launch” may not even be applicable to this development model. Launch will be when we pull the game out of Early Access and we start marketing / public relation campaigns to pull in new customers. We have no plans to do those things in July. We know that this plan will generate a lot of questions and stir up plenty of emotions, but we firmly believe this is the best possible course of action for the project.

By Release 32, our goal is that the virtual world and economy will be fully functional and reasonably balanced. Additionally, the Love storyline will be polished and playable from beginning to end, with all characters and quests complete. The Truth and Courage storylines will also be completely playable from beginning to end, although not in as polished a state as Love. We are purposely holding the finale part of the storyline that ties the three threads together until the entire plot has been polished. This allows us to really focus on the new user experience and one storyline instead of spreading that effort out too thinly. ***Please note that the story is nonlinear and non-exclusive. It is designed to allow free movement between the three storylines and it is only until all three are complete that you move to the finale (this structure will be very familiar to Ultima players). So just because you finish the Love story, you are not excluded in any way from experiencing the other plots.

As part of all of this, we are also announcing the 2016 Spring and Summer Expiration Events. We are expiring approximately half of the currently available pledges during the Spring 2016 Expiration Event, which occurs at 10:30 AM CST, May 2, 2016 (following the next wipe during Release 29). We are then expiring all of the remaining pledges and Player Owned Towns during the Summer 2016 Expiration Event, which occurs at 10:30 AM CST, August 1, 2016 (following the final wipe during Release 32). After August 1 a purchase of the game on our website or through steam will only include access to the game, it will not include any pledge rewards.

We are also expiring the Stretch Goal Store on February 29th at 10:30 AM CST. After that date, those items will no longer be available and we will no longer be considering those stretch goals as part of Episode 1. As part of that, we have changed these items so they can be re-gifted now. Additionally, Release 26 is officially the final Grand Tour for Episode 1 (so you better log in to get the very last Grand Tour quest reward!).

Finally, we are going to be making almost all the add-ons and pledge rewards (except tax free lots) available through gameplay in single player offline mode. Players will still have to earn enough gold to purchase them, or gather enough resources to craft them in-game. For reference, the cost to purchase a Castle Deed in Offline Mode will be at least $120 million gold and it will have a very high tax rate. Players that purchased add-on items and received pledge rewards will start the game with them, just like they do now.

We have decided to do all of this because wiping player progress decreases player engagement and prevents us from getting the economy of the game started. It has also caused us to push polish until later in the project which is a traditional approach to development, but we are not approaching this traditionally. We are also going to stop using the terms “Alpha” and “Beta.” Our product is in a constant state of development and we have been live since November 2013, so using those terms no longer makes sense. Starting with Release 26, we are going to adopt the term “Early Access,” instead.

Here is a list of all the work going in between Release 27 (February) and Release 32 (July). Please note that we will not be posting a revised Q1 schedule, but you can expect the Q2 schedule at the normal time when we launch Release 28 in March.

Pre-Wipe Schedule:

Performance: We will be spending a great deal of each release making improvements to performance via optimizations and fallback routines.

New User Experience: This part of the game will be much more guided and instructive. It will also be better paced with a bigger feeling of accomplishment when leaving the starting areas and having completed the beginning of the game.

Story: The Love storyline will be polished and playable from beginning to end, with all characters and quests complete. The Truth and Courage storylines will also be completely explorable.

Character Art: Major focus will be put on upgrading the visuals of the characters, with special attention paid to wearables, skin, hair, and face.

Animation: Polish passes will be done across all animations in the game with emphasis on speeding up the combat animations to feel MUCH more responsive.

Combat Balance: Through a combination of regular internal play sessions, community feedback, and metrics analysis, we will be balancing combat across all levels of difficulty, magic/combat schools, gear equipped, PVP, and PVE. We will also finish the last few gaps in skill trees (Shields, Ranged, and Chaos) and will add the ability for unlearning skills from trainers.

Economy / Crafting / Loot Balance: Through a combination of regular internal play sessions, community feedback, and metrics analysis, we will be balancing crafting across all levels of difficulty and crafting schools. This includes tuning resource generation (with higher yields in PVP areas), vendor pricing, success chances, and loot. We will also flesh out the crafting skill trees for more breadth and depth to allow for more specialization within schools (ex. Weaponsmith vs. Armorsmith).

NPCs: Polish passes will be made across the characters and creatures, with special emphasis on human NPCs. You can expect much more polished heads (for example, starting with Arabella). The Wisp will also finally make an appearance as the second support pet (Water Elemental was the first).

Fast Travel: Crafted magical fast travel items created through crafting will appear in the game to replace the /zone currently in game.

Item Use Logging: Players will be able to view which players have used interactive items on their player property including doors, chests, and perhaps books.

Single Player Offline Features: Single Player Offline will differ from Online play in the following ways.

Companions: Various characters will adventure with you.

Pause / Save: Players will at least be able to pause game play, but we hope to also allow the creation of multiple save games.

NPC Economy: The economy in offline mode will be tuned so that creating and selling items to NPCs will be profitable.

Spawn Rules: In Offline Mode, some scenes will never respawn creatures and resources (clearing a dungeon for example). The scenes that do respawn may do so on a very slow timer, or only if there is a game state change that requires them to respawn (ex. a Town Siege by the Undead). We will balance this to make sure the game feels like it is reacting to the player but is also providing enough resources for crafting.

All Items Available: After positive response from a recent poll with our backers, we have decided to make all items from pledges and add-ons available in game through crafting or gold purchase.

Sorting Algorithms for Multiplayer: Algorithms to support sorting players into instances with “people they know” will be polished and iterated.

Novia Overworld: A major polish pass will be made across the Novia Overworld map to better align locations and shapes to the original cloth map drawing, while simultaneously normalizing the scales of objects.

Tier Markers and Enemy Consider System: All adventure scenes that are directly accessed from the overworld will have tier markers near the entrance to indicate difficulty. We will also be introducing a consider system for enemies so you will know approximately how hard they are in relation to your level.

User Interface Polish: A pass will be made through the UI to make improvements on visuals, usability, and customizability

Lot Selection Sequence: This will allow us to sequence players for lot selection without having to limit who can play the game. Players will be able to view their group and start time on their account page. See separate post for the details about how lot selection sequence will work and the start times for each group.

Physical Goods: As soon as the Novia Overworld task listed above is complete we will begin manufacture and shipping of the physical goods with the goal to have this completed by the end of 2016.

Pre-Wipe Feature / Content:

This is a complete list of all content and features that will be present in the game by Release 32.

Dynamic Player Owned Towns where owners can customize lot placement and town decorations.

Servants and house pets.

Public Cache Chests.

Social / Misc

Friends.

Guilds.

5 Musical Instruments (Lute, Drum, Piano, Harp, Flute) with songs played via ABC/MML files including ability to play as a synched group.

Text Chat with multiple channels (guild, party, private).

Radio linked to customizable webstreams.

Banking System.

DnD 1 playable on a teletype machine.

Post-Wipe Schedule:

By now you might be asking yourself “but what about feature X?” With this focus on polish and functionality, it is indeed true that some features and content will be going live after the final wipe. We intend to continue monthly updates for the life of the project, so nothing about that will change with the wipe. Please rest assured that we are still planning on getting the content and features below in those monthly releases. Here is the list of Post-Wipe features and content. As before, we will be releasing quarterly schedule updates for when these will go live. Please note that our plan is to complete all of the below before starting work on Episode 2.

Player Housing

Magic Movers: Store/move a house/basement with all decorations intact.

Spawner Decorations: Placeable items that spawn a certain number of creatures like spider eggs / webs that spawn spiders and coffins that spawn skeletons.

Renting Rooms: Players can rent rooms to other players within their homes and basements.

Player-Owned Towns: Please note that following R26 we will have a thread in the forums to discuss PoTs and address specific questions about Static vs. Dynamic (among other things).

Multiple Templates for each Biome: For the final wipe, we will have 1 template for each biome. Post-wipe, expanding each biome to have 2-3 template options will be our highest priority for housing. As more templates come online, we will also create tech that allows us to swap a biome in a town without deleting everyone’s stuff.

Custom Static Player Owned Towns: As soon as we have multiple templates, we will begin working down the list of players who wish to have custom static towns. Order will be based on size and purchase date (i.e. the oldest and biggest will be built first). Please note that as long as you have filled in your form with a town name and template selection by 10:30 CST on May 27, 2016, your POT will be in the game as a dynamic POT.

POT Blessings: Blessings from objects placed in the town that scale based on occupancy.

Water Lot Placement on Docks: Allows placement of water lot markers on manmade structures like docks and waterfronts (not just beaches).

Island Water Lot Placement: Allows placement of Duke and Lord of the Manor Island lot markers.

Player Customization:

Armor Enamels and Leather Dyes: Ability to add enamels of different colors to metal armor and dye leather armor.

Custom Duke and Lord of the Manor Heads: As soon as we finish with overall character polish, we will begin work on these custom heads and the tech to allow them to be used instead of the heads from character creation.

Custom Family Crest (aka Heraldry): Unique art that can be displayed in game on shields, cloaks, and banners.

Multiple Characters: Multiple characters on a single account with shared property ownership, bank inventory and reputation.

Crafting:

Alcohol: Brewing beer and distilling liquor which has mixed effects on the player.

Teachable Crafting Recipes: Teaching recipes to other players, much like emotes.

Public Gardens: Rentable planting beds in public areas for those who don’t own land but want to do agriculture.

Player Made Items in Loot: Crafted gear sold to NPC Merchants will have a chance to appear as loot on humanoid enemies.

Combat:

Item Reputation & Affinity: Items will gain a reputation and affinity to the player wielding them after repetition of certain actions. That reputation will be represented by a name and an effect. For example, after killing 1000 dark elves, your trusty long sword is now called “Elf Bane” and deals an extra 2% of damage against dark elves.

Castle Defense Scenarios: PVP variations of control points.

Town Sieges: Story-related towns will periodically come under siege by the Cabalists. While under siege, the town’s functions will be affected.

Cover: The cover system will modify attack and defense values when you (or your target) are behind cover.

World/Story:

Weather Game Effects: Weather will affect game conditions including watering plants for agriculture, damaging gear (rust), and slowing movement rates when raining or snowing.

Roving Encounters: Roving encounters (patrolling creatures) on the overworld map can be engaged (pulling you into a scene) or avoided if you wish to sneak past.

Shipping Lanes: Boats will become more than just teleporters to different scenes. They will have schedules and a chance to have random encounters while at sea.

Unique Scene Visuals: Once we get Novia filled with all the needed scenes (some created by cloning existing scenes), we will circle back and start modifying all cloned scenes to be visually distinct.

Unique NPCs: Once we get Novia filled with all the story-related NPCs and generic clones for all other NPCs (guards, merchants, etc.) we will circle back and add unique names and conversations for all the non-story-related NPCs

Player-Designed NPCs: Some of these will be present by the final wipe, but this backer reward won’t be entirely fulfilled until we complete the “Unique NPCs” task above,

Place Items Anywhere: Being able to drop items anywhere in the world, not just player property is a hallmark of Ultimas and we hope to support this as well. Please note that this may only be available in offline mode.

Truth and Courage Storylines: Truth and Courage will be fully explorable by wipe, but not in a polished state.

Shroud Finale: The culmination where all three storylines come together

Minimaps: While the system will be complete and in place, we may not have maps generated for every scene prior to wipe. Pre-wipe priority will be placed on starting scenes and Love storyline scenes. Post-wipe we plan to have minimaps for every scene.

Social:

Voice Chat: We will integrate something like Teamspeak into the game to allow for voice chat between players

Name on Tombstones: Player names displayed in the Brittany graveyard and on the Ancestor pledge reward.

Name in Domesday Book: Player names displayed in the Domesday Book.

Mail: Players will be able to mail each other (or themselves) items for a fee. This might also be the way we deliver some content like vendor sale proceeds.

Thank you for everything you do for us including your monetary support (without which this wouldn’t even be possible), your feedback, and, of course, your patience. It has been a long road, but we are finally getting there.

Sincerely,
Starr Long
aka
Darkstarr

Postscript: LOT SELECTION SEQUENCE

This is the final Lot Selection Sequence, including exact start times for each group. This is our attempt to come up with a fair system that is easy to communicate and rewards both early backers and the Kickstarter promise that extra pledge dollars would influence lot selection. This lot selection affects ALL lot placement including NPC towns and Player Owned Towns.

What will be the SORT ORDER?

Tier

Era (Royal Founder, Founder, Benefactor)

Pledge Amount

What will be the NUMBER OF LOTS?

The final number of lots (outside of Player Owned Towns) for final wipe will be locked at midnight on July 27 and will be based on pledges sold, plus Add-On Store lot allocations, plus 30% more for in game gold purchase.

When is START OF LOT SELECTION?

Final Lot selection begins on July 28, 2016, at 11:00 CDT (NOTE: All times are given in 24 hour format).

Where is the LOT SELECTION LOCATION?

Lot selection will happen in game.

All lots will be available, but please note that you will have to complete the first two starting scenes (Island of Storms and Highvale/Solace Bridge/Bloodriver) before you can proceed to lot selection in game; which is why start times are 30 minutes after the start of Release 32.

Lots in Player Owned Towns won’t be available until the owner puts down the appropriate markers. Once that is done, lot selection in PoTs will be governed by all the same rules

What will be the LOT SELECTION METHOD?

Each pledge tier will get a LOT SELECTION WINDOW of time to select a SINGLE lot.

Inside the tier window, the amount of time available to each sub-group will be based on their pledge era (Royal Founder, Founder, Benefactor) and total pledge contribution.

What is the LOT SELECTION WINDOW DURATION?

Each Pledge Tier will get 64 hours total, with each subgroup starting in 5 hour increments, before the next group begins selection

The lowest subgroup in a tier will get 24 hours to pick their lot before the next tier window would start.

Lot selection for a group continues from their start time until the start of Release 33 on August 25, 2016, 10:30 CDT when we will begin selling lots inside the game and allowing those to be placed.

MISC:

Add-On purchases do not factor into the dollar total that affects lot selection priority.

EDIT: Many backers have inquired how to add dollars to their pledge.

Option 1: Start and cancel a payment plan

Option 2: Purchase a $25 Service voucher and send a request to support@portalarium. We will then add that $25 plus whatever amount of available store credits or gift coupons you wish to your pledge.

Only 1 pledge allowed per account. If you have multiple pledges on a single account you will need to convert any extra pledges to add on store credit or move them into separate accounts prior to lot selection.

You can change your mind and claim another lot at any time but there will be a time limit on how quickly you are able to do this.

Only 1 Lot can be claimed per account until the start time for Group 91 (Add Ons and 2nd pledge lots)

*****UPDATE: During Release 32 Lot Deeds are bound to your account. They cannot be traded, they cannot be placed in containers, nor can they be placed as decorations. This is to prevent duplicate deeds when players upgrade during Release 32 and to prevent some unforeseen loopholes in lot placement that deed trading was allowing.*****

What is the TIER ORDER?

Tier order would start at the most expensive tiers and work backwards.

Dollar amount over minimum pledge amount will grant priority by being sorted into groups (i.e. NOT literally per dollar, but rather greater/less than).

Total dollar amount will never get you sorted before another tier nor before another era (i.e. it is the last sort variable).

TIER ORDER Sequence:

Lord of the Manor 1 and 2 (Castle Lots and below)

Duke (Keep Lots and below)

Barons 1, 2, and 3 (City Lots and below)

Lord and Lord Marshal (Town Lots and below)

Knight and Knight Marshal (Town and Village Lots and below)

Edelmann and Edelmann Digital (Village Lots and below)

Citizen (Village Lots and below)

Developer (Row Lots)

Navigator (Row Lots)

Ancestor (Row Lots)

Add-On Lots plus Additional Lots (Lord and above): These will not have any sub groups and would all go at once (but still before general public)

SUB TIER ORDER Sequence and Duration

ROYAL FOUNDERS: (pre-May 20, 2013 Backers)

Group 1 = 64 hours

Group 2 = 59 hours

Group 3 = 54 hours

FOUNDERS: (Benefactors who received Founder gift pledge)

Group 4 = 49 hours

Group 5 = 44 hours

Group 6 = 39 hours

BENEFACTORS: (post-May 20, 2013 Backers)

Group 7 = 34 hours

Group 8 = 29 hours

Group 9 = 24 hours

OFFICIAL START TIMES FOR LOT SELECTION:.All times are in 24 hour format. These times will appear on your account page no later than June.

I don't have a problem with the story not being ready before the final wipe. But I have to say that I am a little bit disappointed by the list of features that are supposed to make the offline mode really unique.
I know that now I have to rant again but... hmm, ok here is what I don't like:

No sleeping to advance time?

Yes it has been said that this is a feature that won't make it into Episode 1 but this should definitely be reconsidered. The more I think about this, the more important it gets.

Think about the following situations: In The Witcher 3 I have to fight a wraith that appears at night only but I cannot advance the time so I have to wait until the right time? What if I have to meet an NPC at a certain time of day at a certain spot? As I understand, time is not advancing when I am not in the game in offline mode, right? And even if it would advance somehow, I would have to log in at the exact right time? This could become extremely annoying and frustrating. Especially for people who do not have that much time playing the game. Standing around somewhere for half an hour in a game is not very funny.

So why not implement a very rudimentary version of this for Episode 1 and expand it from there? Double clicking on a bed could show a bar with which we can adjust the hours that should advance. In later Episodes bedrolls or camping could be introduced. But I think that we definitely need a way to advance time in the game in offline mode, otherwise it could get really frustrating.

Savegames:

I was a bit shocked to read that it is not certain that we would get multiple savegames… Is there a single player RPG out there in which the game cannot be saved in multiple slots? Oh yes wait. Sword Coast Legends has this and it is one of the most hated features... Multiple Savegames is must have feature in my opinion.

UI:

Sorry to say it but the offline mode Needs a special UI treatment. There should be nothing there to remind people of a MMORPG. This does include the chat window. I don't want to see it in the game. For the dialogues we should get a different window that looks like a cool dialogue window and not like an IRC chat protocol.
Also, in offline mode the game should automatically start with all UI options set to the absolute minimum. From there players can add things they want if they need more information. But it should start barebones. No floating bars, texts, numbers or names. No unneccessary windows with information we don't need in offline mode. Backpack mode should be turned on by default.

With a MMO-UI, no multiple savegames and no sleeping to advance time SotA would definitely feel and play like an offline MMORPG and this is absolutely not what single player fans want. Yes, implementing those features for Episode 1 would take time and resources but when I look at the list I see 5 (in words five!) features for the offline mode compared to what, a countless number of features for online mode? This doesn't look like the offline mode does have the same priority as the online mode but if you say it has then delay some online features in order to integrate more offline features. Sorry to all you online folks but this would be the right sign to show that the offline part is as important as the online part of the game.

Problem is if Sota should feel unique and different in offline mode, if it should feel like a true single player game then there needs to be more to it than just different respawning rules and the ability to make a profit by selling items to NPCs.

Another thing: Companions - great that we will get them. But still we do not know yet how they will work. Will they just be human combat pets or will there be more to them? Will we be able to pause the game to give orders to our companions? Will we be able to manage their gear, inventory and skills? Will I be able to determine what kind of armor they wear and what weapon they use? Will I be able to train their skills? And yes, all of this would take time to implement, time that would make the offline mode even better, even more unique and even more like a true single player RPG.

I hope that the offline mode does get a little more love then what is listed here...

I don't have a problem with the story not being ready before the final wipe. But I have to say that I am a little bit disappointed by the list of features that are supposed to make the offline mode really unique.
I know that now I have to rant again but... hmm, ok here is what I don't like:

No sleeping to advance time?

Yes it has been said that this is a feature that won't make it into Episode 1 but this should definitely be reconsidered. The more I think about this, the more important it gets.

Think about the following situations: In The Witcher 3 I have to fight a wraith that appears at night only but I cannot advance the time so I have to wait until the right time? What if I have to meet an NPC at a certain time of day at a certain spot? As I understand, time is not advancing when I am not in the game in offline mode, right? And even if it would advance somehow, I would have to log in at the exact right time? This could become extremely annoying and frustrating. Especially for people who do not have that much time playing the game. Standing around somewhere for half an hour in a game is not very funny.

So why not implement a very rudimentary version of this for Episode 1 and expand it from there? Double clicking on a bed could show a bar with which we can adjust the hours that should advance. In later Episodes bedrolls or camping could be introduced. But I think that we definitely need a way to advance time in the game in offline mode, otherwise it could get really frustrating.

Savegames:

I was a bit shocked to read that it is not certain that we would get multiple savegames… Is there a single player RPG out there in which the game cannot be saved in multiple slots? Oh yes wait. Sword Coast Legends has this and it is one of the most hated features... Multiple Savegames is must have feature in my opinion.

UI:

Sorry to say it but the offline mode Needs a special UI treatment. There should be nothing there to remind people of a MMORPG. This does include the chat window. I don't want to see it in the game. For the dialogues we should get a different window that looks like a cool dialogue window and not like an IRC chat protocol.
Also, in offline mode the game should automatically start with all UI options set to the absolute minimum. From there players can add things they want if they need more information. But it should start barebones. No floating bars, texts, numbers or names. No unneccessary windows with information we don't need in offline mode. Backpack mode should be turned on by default.

With a MMO-UI, no multiple savegames and no sleeping to advance time SotA would definitely feel and play like an offline MMORPG and this is absolutely not what single player fans want. Yes, implementing those features for Episode 1 would take time and resources but when I look at the list I see 5 (in words five!) features for the offline mode compared to what, a countless number of features for online mode? This doesn't look like the offline mode does have the same priority as the online mode but if you say it has then delay some online features in order to integrate more offline features. Sorry to all you online folks but this would be the right sign to show that the offline part is as important as the online part of the game.

Problem is if Sota should feel unique and different in offline mode, if it should feel like a true single player game then there needs to be more to it than just different respawning rules and the ability to make aprofit by selling items to NPCs.

Another thing: Companions - great that we will get them. But still we do not know yet how they will work. Will they just be human combat pets or will there be more to them? Will we be able to pause the game to give orders to our companions? Will we be able to manage their gear, inventory and skills? Will I be able to determine what kind of armor they wear and what weapon they use? Will I be able to train their skills? And yes, all of this would take time to implement, time that would make the offline mode even better, even more unique and even more like a true single player RPG.

I hope that the offline mode does get a little more love then what is listed here...

Click to expand...

I just want to say that seems like reasonable and constructive feedback.

Hm, is there anything stopping all the higher tiers from picking lower tier lots?

Preventing this would seem to be fundamentally necessary in order to know how many lots you need, at least for this initial lot selection?
Or put another way, restricting initial selection to in-tier lots only (town must pick town, village must pick village, etc), is what I mean.

Otherwise, all the prime locations will be gone long before anyone of that lot tier gets a legitimate chance to pick them, making pretty much everyone angry. Or am I missing something that is going to prevent this?

EDIT: Furthermore, not addressing this will completely skew the available lots per tier, making it possible for higher tiers to prevent lower tiers from selecting their lots, forcing the problem 'downhill' so to speak until there are literally no lots available for all the 'row lot' deed holders.

If even a small number of city deed holders pick town or lower, or town deed holders pick village or row, it's extremely likely that the snowball effect will be there will not be enough lots available for village and row deed holders to place, at all, anywhere.

Hm, is there anything stopping all the higher tiers from picking lower tier lots?

Preventing this would seem to be fundamentally necessary in order to know how many lots you need, at least for this initial lot selection?
Or put another way, restricting initial selection to in-tier lots only (town must pick town, village must pick village, etc), is what I mean.

Otherwise, all the prime locations will be gone long before anyone of that lot tier gets a legitimate chance to pick them, making pretty much everyone angry. Or am I missing something that is going to prevent this?

Click to expand...

People paid more for their pledge and they get better selection. If someone wants to pay $5300 for their Duke (or $6000) in order to get the best row lot - I have no issue with it.

There will still be enough places to place if higher tiers take lots smaller than what they are entitled to. And the vast majority of each tier is going to want to settle on the largest lot size they are entitled to. And if not - 30% extra lots should more than cover this eventuality.

Also!!!!!!!!!!! (!!!!!!) - To people who keep thinking we are going to "run out" of lots.

Most of those pledged to Lord and above have a second lot deed. That smaller lot deed will have been accounted for. If a large player like a Duke or a Lord uses their first pick to get a village or row lot, they don't get to claim two lots before the citizens go - the lots won't run out.

There are approximately 10k lots needed, they will add an additional 30%.

Even if none of the pledges at Lord and above got a second lot, and all of them chose a village lot, that is fewer than 800 lots. 30% more lots on 10k lots is 3000 extra lots.

Hm, is there anything stopping all the higher tiers from picking lower tier lots?

Preventing this would seem to be fundamentally necessary in order to know how many lots you need, at least for this initial lot selection?
Or put another way, restricting initial selection to in-tier lots only (town must pick town, village must pick village, etc), is what I mean.

Otherwise, all the prime locations will be gone long before anyone of that lot tier gets a legitimate chance to pick them, making pretty much everyone angry. Or am I missing something that is going to prevent this?

EDIT: Furthermore, not addressing this will completely skew the available lots per tier, making it possible for higher tiers to prevent lower tiers from selecting their lots, forcing the problem 'downhill' so to speak until there are literally no lots available for all the 'row lot' deed holders.

If even a small number of city deed holders pick town or lower, or town deed holders pick village or row, it's extremely likely that the snowball effect will be there will not be enough lots available for village and row deed holders to place, at all, anywhere.

Click to expand...

I disagree with this. Why penalize people that paid more from getting the lot they want? I paid 12k, so if I want to forfeit my castle for a row lot, that's my right.